Staff Pick
Hagy writes like an oracle, conjuring up a world that is like a funhouse mirror distortion of our past. Her America is a lawless place, ravaged by civil war and sickness, and populated by marauding bands of survivors. The two characters at the beating, bloody heart of this book are profoundly damaged, calloused to the extent that they think they are impervious to pain or tenderness. This is, of course, spectacularly untrue. Every word of this slim novel is carefully chosen, meted out as though paid for in blood, and the whole evokes the rough and terrible beauty of Appalachia. Scribe is a brutal piece of mythology — think Hieronymus Bosch's horrors filtered through Cormac McCarthy's rugged lyricism. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com